Community Feedback: Removing PT File Previewer in favor of Peek #26726
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This is great as the new FE has a new details pane anyways. It's better to consolidate effort with the one experience we want to provide to users. |
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I do not like the idea of removing the file preview in File Explorer. In some projects, when I'm working with a huge amount of small files (Markdown, Monaco Preview files), sometimes I just want to see what's inside without having to hit a few keys first. But these two preview file types are the only ones I regularly use for previewing (+ If I should open an feature suggestion... for the key things just write. I hope you can understand it (my English is not so good). |
Yes, please open a new feature request with your ideas for the activation key. |
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Please no. The preview pane is better because it's always available when you need it, and it can be integrated in 3rd party apps like Total commander. Peek requires the entire powertoys thing to be running. Also Peek adds one more window that you have to manage when multitasking. |
Would be neat if Peek also has an API for 3rd party additions [EDIT: see also #26422], although 3rd party devs’ awareness of PowerToys might be limited (namely compared to the Explorer preview) simply because Windows doesn’t pre-bundle PowerToys (despite heavy recommendations).
That’s an inherent problem with toolkits like PowerToys … it’s basically a collection of bundleware if you view it from a certain perspective. [Update: filed this as #27729]
What if – |
I would also support this. IMO it's much quicker to have a look at the preview pane than pressing a shortcut if you just need a small glance at a file. If the devs want to focus on Peek, that's fine, but please give us the option to place the peek preview in the explorer preview pane. |
I just want to say that his is highly suggestive and not something I like to be reading. But maybe that's something they teach new employees at Microsoft? On a different note. I agree with a few points mentioned above; the preview pane is built-in Explorer, so easily accessible and indeed so without the large PowerToys software to be running. |
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On another note, the new file Explorer im the Windows Insider builds has a new details pane, which will be easily accessible by a button in the top right, whereas the preview pane will be more a feature, that is moving to the background. @Jay-o-Way Peek allows you for example to copy things out of files. It also allows us to more easely make a good user interface. |
Although maybe not impossible that would be very difficult to do. And how would it then differentiate from the preview pane? |
Supported file types? |
(Possibly) different in a technical perspective. Perhaps the preview pane is nothing more than a widget, but the peek is a full-blown window. Docking the peek means borderlessly embedding it (in the preview pane or as an Explorer mod) or simply putting it next to the Explorer window. |
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@ParadoxV5 to your first comment -- all that would be just reinventing the wheel for no good reason whatsoever. Nobody would ever use a 3rd party Peek API, certainly not the old-head file managers. |
On the user side it mostly works fine, you're right, but on the developer side we have to make a lot of quirks to make it work with newer technology like webview2. All this while the preview pane technology is very poorly documented and it's difficult to debug. These are all problems we don't have with Peek. So just focusing on Peek would bring us faster developer times and helps us to iterate faster. |
Interesting insight. Devs (1st- or 3rd-party) would have much easier times if they can just work with Peek as an alternative/replacement of the preview pane. Even if docs fail, Peek source code is public after all, unlike Windows Explorer. |
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Well if you value ease of development over utility then remove it, I can't stop you. I'm just telling you that using the preview pane has several real advantages that Peek will never be able to replicate. |
As I wrote some time ago, I prefer to use the preview pane. I am a person who has folders with a lot of files and I regularly have to look at what they are about and which one I need. With the preview pane I can just select the first one, see what's inside in a small pane at the side (size dependent on the file explorer size) and then press the arrow down (, ..., ). With Peek I first need to select a file, press a annoying key shortcut, close the window if I don't need the content (, ..., ). |
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I use the preview pane regularly, and this would be a loss for me. I would prefer the preview pane over peek, if a choice between the two needs to be made. The preview pane has a convenient docked location, in contrast to peek which places a window on top of current applications. |
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A nice benefit of the standard previewers is that they work in other file managers and utilities besides Explorer. Eg. Everything can load preview handlers in its own preview pane. I think tools like that would be much less likely to implement Peek previews, especially if there was no way to embed them in another window. |
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I'm glad you are keeping thumbnail generation around, as I have sent a PR to allow Peek to use those as main icon (and fallback to file icon when no thumbnail is available)! #27979 That PR also fixes the alpha channel transparency issue that Peek has been plagued since inception! |
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There is one thing I like about file explorer preview that no other replacement solution offers: |
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What would be the possibility of adding the open file dialogs/widgets to peek? That way it could function as a standalone tool? |
I disagree. Workflow using preview pane:
Workflow using Peek:
My conclusion is that 4 actions (preview pane) < 7 actions (Peek). |
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I quote @FroggieFrog
This is literally my daily workflow, every single day. It has been for years. I cannot emphasize how much time this preview saves me. I cannot imagine preview not being a part of file explorer. I sincerely request the devs to keep this in PowerToys. As for peek, well, I say keep it. There are people who prefer peek and there are people who prefer preview. Both are good in their own way. |
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I also think the functionality of getting a new preview with just moving the file selector is critical. Seems like this proposal is OK if a dockable peek that just stays open to save all the keystrokes can be conceived. |
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Peek is good, I like how it uses dark theme for .md files. But can I invoke it from terminal? I.e. |
good feedback, outside the scope of the Q as a File Explorer previewer wouldn't do this as well |
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In my opinion, peek should truly rival preview pane only when it can update as soon as the user selects a different item. One use I use for preview pane is to just press ⬇️ repeatedly for viewing content, but peek currently doesn't have that (edit: you can use the arrows in the preview window as well) |
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I don't think that we should remove the preview handlers because Peek can use it too. If we do so, we definitely have to port them over to Peek. |
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I know. But they have to exist as explorer preview handler. If we remove them in File Explorer then they won't be available in Peek too. |
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Actually other preview utils like QuickLook are based on the Windows preview pane previewers if I'm not wrong? |
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I'd rather Peek be based of of preview pane handlers, so other apps benefit too! |
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As someone who frequently has to browse large folders with MANY items, just having the preview pane instantly show the file without be having to press another key is immensely useful. Please keep the preview pane functionality. |
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Just if y'all could please go through all my software and network work system and get it back right.. thank y'all so much |
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I agree with @Nolram12345 I also modified my request to use space as a hotkey to include toggling the Preview. But looking at both, I think it should ideally be a single code base but act as a toggle to have peek/preview as a pane or popup. Preview is useful for those that need to go through their image assets folder to see what is available if the file names are "garbled" However I like the auto-play feature of peek which is useful for checking what audio assets are available |
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Currently I only use activated for the .SVG I would like to continue seeing without having to press a button! |
and others
Description of the new feature / enhancement
We are thinking about phasing out the preview pane work in favor of Peek. Peek is designed in a way that allows us to iterate far faster than the File Explorer preview pane. Debugging / testing the preview pane extensions does add a lot of time. This adjustment will allow us to slim down PowerToys, iterate faster and simplify the code base
We'd love community feedback here as our plan of record will be to do the following:
I want to directly call out Thumbnail generation code will stay in PowerToys. This is only for the Preview pane
Scenario when this would be used?
Simplifying the PT code base and better user experience via PowerToys Peek
Supporting information
No response
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